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July 24, 2011

G99: Red Sox 12, Mariners 8

Tim Wakefield won his 199th career game -- #185 with Boston -- and collected his 2,000th strikeout as a member of the Red Sox, as Boston finished a three-game sweep of the lowly Mariners. Seattle has now lost 15 consecutive games, a new franchise record.

Miguel Olivo's two-run homer gave Seattle an early lead, but the Red Sox wiped that out when they batted around in the bottom of the first. Jacoby Ellsbury doubled, took third on a wild pitch, and scored on Adrian Gonzalez's single. Kevin Youkilis homered to left to give Boston a 3-2 lead. Three opposite field hits gave the Red Sox two more runs: David Ortiz's single off the Wall, Carl Crawford's double off the Wall, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's two-run single to right.

The Red Sox, up 5-3, batted around in the fifth. With one out, Gonzalez singled and Youkilis walked. That ended Pineda's (4.1-8-7-1-4, 85) afternoon. Aaron Laffey came in and allowed four hits to four batters: Ortiz singled, Crawford singled (7-3), Josh Reddick doubled (8-3), and Saltalamacchia singled (10-3).

In the sixth, Dustin Pedroia extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a double to center field; he scored on Gonzalez's third single of the day.

Crawford was on base four times (two singles, double, walk) and drove in two runs. Saltalamacchia was 3-for-4 with four RBI.

Wakefield (6.1-10-7-1-4, 100) struck out Mike Carp on three pitches to end the sixth inning. It was his 2,000th regular season Red Sox strikeout; he is 2nd on the team's all-time list, trailing Fat Billy (2,590). In the seventh, Wakefield surrendered three singles and a grand slam to Brendan Ryan. Alfredo Aceves pitched the final 2.1 innings.

The Yankees beat the A's 7-5. The Red Sox (16-3 in July) lead the East by three games.

Seattle sends another rookie to the hill, hoping to avoid a franchise-record 15th straight loss. The Mariners also lost 14 consecutive games in 1992 (September 2-18).

Pineda, 22 years old (6-7, 255), has made 19 starts and has a 3.24 ERA and a 1.056 WHIP. He was named to the All-Star team earlier this month.After making only 25 starts above Single-A (13 AA and 12 AAA last year), Pineda forced his way into the rotation. He has pitched 6+ innings in 16 of his 19 starts (and at least five innings in every start) and has held opponents to a .202 average. Pineda has a mid-90s fastball, along with a slider and changeup.

Wakefield hopes to grab his 199th career win and 185th victory with the Red Sox.